About The Film

Arab in America – The Motion Picture is a blog designed to show everyone out there in the interwebs the dirty process of turning our short film, Arab in America, into a full-fledged feature film.
Arab in America chronicles the journey of an American-born character named, “Osama Ahmed Abou-Bakr” and his plight to find a job in America’s post-9/11 atmosphere. The story highlights the hardships of Middle Easterners and Muslims living in the United States of America. The character, “Osama”, a recent college graduate, cannot get anyone to hire him so he resorts to a drastic measure: he changes his name from “Osama Ahmed Abou-Bakr” to the more appealing “Samuel Adam Baker”. Instantly, he’s offered a high-paying job at a prestigious company. However, concealing his true identity turns into a daunting task that unfortunately “Sam” cannot keep up and eventually comes clean. The script is loosely based on real-life events that continue to plague Nabil’s cousin, Nidal Abo-Hareb, his father, Zouheir Abouharb, his brother, Osama AbouHarb, and himself.

The subject matter and humorous tone of the screenplay (co-written with college roommate, Colin Ferri) attracted many students and faculty members to dedicate their expertise and time to help the ambitious project get off its feet. It was through this hard work and contacts through Michael Brubaker that put Nabil in touch with an Savannah, GA investor named Nic Applegate. As a successful architect, building contractor, band-manager, and overall entrepreneur, it was hard to imagine a business where Applegate wouldn’t be successful. Nabil and co. pitched the story to Applegate, and he agreed to fully fund the entire project.

The Arab in America short was shot over twelve days in Savannah, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia. Nabil directed and co-produced the film. The movie debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival followed by the U.S. premiere at the Arabian Sights Film Festival sponsored by The Washington D.C. International Film Festival where Arab in America took home the Audience Award for Best Short Film.

With many talent agencies and production companies showing interest in a feature version of the Arab in America short, Nabil Abou-Harb and Colin Ferri teamed up with Thomas Verrette to complete the feature screenplay. Though they’ve come very close on multiple occasions, no studio or production company has picked up the Arab in America screenplay… This blog will chronicle the journey to hopefully and finally getting this film made.

If you’re looking for the old Arab website, it can be accessed at any time by going to http://www.fiveonfifty.com/arabinamerica whenever you’d like. I’d beware, however… The site looks like it was made in 1994 and hasn’t been updated in over a year (sorry about that).